ABSTRACT
This paper attempts to analyse certain legal and technological consequences of the efforts of FAO and IAEA through their Joint FAO/IAEA Division, Vienna and the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation (ICGFI) in harmonizing regulations on food irradiation in their Member States in the past decade. Mainly, these consequences result from the way how the acceptable dose values are defined and whether such provisions can be enforced in practice. Also operators of irradiation facilities and food manufacturers have to be concerned about the consequences of such regulations as unfounded restrictions will affect the profitability of their services. Harmonization, literally, makes regulations only more homogeneous, but not necessarily more reasonable. In order to contribute to free trade under the WTO-agreement, harmonization would have to remove any incompatible, unfounded restrictions. This is outlined by referencing existing national regulations and contrasting them to recent harmonization efforts.
